Hundreds Take Part in Memorial for 14 Victims of Bus Disaster

Hundreds of people took part in an outdoor memorial service Thursday for 14 bus passengers who died on July 6, when an Arab passenger seized the wheel and sent the vehicle plunging into a ravine, where it burst into flames.

The ceremony was held at the site of the disaster on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway over-looking the ravine.

It was organized by the National Religious Party, the militant Gush Emunim settlement movement and the Egged bus company, which provides inter-urban transportation in Israel.

Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, Mordechai Eliahu, officiated at the memorial services, along with Transport Minister Moshe Katsav of Likud and Avner Shaki of the NRP, a minister without portfolio.

A makeshift monument was erected on the site, made of stones from the valley and charred fragments of the bus.

Thousands of other Israelis identified with the victims, two of whom were Canadian tourists. Traffic halted all over the country at 6 p.m. local time Thursday for a moment of silence to mark the tragedy one week later.